How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
How long Lord? wilt thou be angry - (Psalms 74:10.) Thine anger against thy people, though justly merited, anger now at length turn from them upon their and thy foes. Though judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17), yet it is not designed to make an utter end of them: that is the doom of the God-opposed peoples against whom the hand of the Lord must at last be turned. Now that thy people are turning to thee in prayer, it is the time for thee to turn to them in mercy, and to turn against their enemies in judgment.
For ever. God's anger will burn forever against the ungodly; but against believers, when they incur punishment, His wrath burns hotly indeed, but not eternally (Deuteronomy 32:36; Deuteronomy 32:43; Ezekiel 38:19-23).
Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? "Jealousy" exists only where love is. God's relation to Israel was that of a loving husband (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14; Psalms 78:58; cf. also Deuteronomy 29:20).